Bon Journal

VIRUS ALERT: W32/Mydoom.A@mm

Those formiddable words "virus alert" in the subject heading of my e-mails caught me off guard.

Should I click on the e-mail and risk getting a virus?

I had earlier received a red alert e-mail from my web host concerning a bombardment of the W32/Mydoom.A@mm virus. It said:

Two days ago (27/01/2004) between 01.40am and 23.45PM our servers was bombarded by multiple emails containing the new W32/Mydoom.A.worm virus to almost all clients email inboxes. Today we are still getting hit by as much as 800 a day.

The servers Anti Virus software has stood up to the challenge and intercepted over 3,000 emails all of which have been stored at our head office for any clues to where they come from. Copies of every email has been sent to some of the top leading Anti virus companies in the world in an on going bid to prevent this sort of attack harming computers worldwide.

Here is some information given to us from Panda Antivirus software, one of our partners...

New worm W32/Mydoom.A.worm has already reached red alert status according to the virus labs of Panda Software. There have already been many incidences with thousands of users in numerous countries. Panda Software offers updates to all its customers to detect and eliminate W32/Mydoom.A worm. Users who have not enabled automatic updates can upgrade the antivirus in http://www.pandasoftware.com/.

Due to the possibility of being infected by W32/Mydoom.A.worm, Panda Software advises users to treat all e-mails received with caution, and to update their antivirus solutions as soon as possible and installing a good firewall.

Similarly, users can also detect and disinfect this and other malicious code using the free, online antivirus, Panda ActiveScan, which is available on the virus advice section of www.lmhosting.co.uk at the bottom left above the news (please ensure popups are allowed by your browser). Also, PQRemove http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/ free disinfection tool is available for all users.

I decided to take my chance. I clicked on an e-mail. It said:

You have received a message with a virus. For your security, this message was removed from the system. More information about the origin and subject of the original message can be seen in the headers below:

but there was nothing about the original message below the text. I have no clue who sent the e-mail. But I counted about 30 such e-mails in one day!

3 February 2004 Tuesday

Mydoom.A.worm is a new worm causing chaos around the world on three fronts:

1. It spreads rapidly, as it sends itself in e-mails to all the contacts in the address book on the infected computer, therefore collapsing e-mail servers.

2. It also contaminates files shared through KaZaA, immediately infecting other users that download files.

3. It opens TCP port 3127, which could allow hackers to take remote control of the infected computer and access or steal all types of resources and information.

4. It connects infected computers to a web page, creating traffic that will cause the servers involved to collapse.